December 29, 2015
In yesterday’s post we talked about three main ways students can demonstrate their learning that is through the creation of educational posters, videos and/or digital portfolios. There is also the possibility of creating creative animations as a way to communicate their thinking. To this end, we are sharing with you some of our favourite apps that student can use in class or at home to design beautiful animations. Check them out below:

‘Educreations is a unique interactive whiteboard and screencasting tool that's simple, powerful, and fun to use. Annotate, animate, and narrate nearly any type of content as you explain any concept. Teachers can create short instructional videos and share them instantly with students, or ask students to show what they know and help friends learn something new.’

‘ShowMe allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online…Some of its features include:Record your ShowMe tutorial right away — no manuals or complicated menus needed; Drop in images onto the whiteboard; Easily switch between drawing and erasing (as well as pausing and playing) to make your ShowMe flow from concept to concept; You can make your ShowMe as long or as short as it needs to be, and record as many ShowMe’s as you want.’

‘Using DoodleCast Pro you will be able to create beautiful drawings and presentations on your iPad. The app also supports audio recording allowing you to illustrate your drawings with your own recorded voice. Some of its features include :
• Set backgrounds and import your own images
• Support for multiple pages as well as undo and redo
• Save videos and images directly to your photo album
• Built-in support for sharing via Dropbox, YouTube and email
• Multiple brush and pointer styles
• Control over colours, line weight and opacity
• New rewind feature lets you fix mistakes quickly’

‘Explain Everything is a great interactive whiteboard that allows you to create screencasts and video tutorials using annotation, animation, narration, importing, and exporting almost anything to and from almost anywhere. Some of its features include :

Create slides using an infinite canvas, use a laser pointer, draw in any color, add shapes, text,

‘Animation Desk for iPad allows users to create hand-drawn animations on iPad. The drawing interface provided by the app resembles the real working environment of a professional animator who completes each frame of an animation on a specially-designed desk, the animation desk…Animation Desk for iPad provides an easy, friendly, and intuitive drawing environment so that everyone can enjoy creating their own animated works.’